Dystopian Nightmare
by Honor Reid
Summary: Nyssa worries about the changes she sees in the Doctor and Tegan after they visit Nagil 5.


**A/N:** Many, many thanks to my awesome beta for this story persiflage_1. This was written for the LJ comm hc_bingo prompt: Dystopia, stories_a_z prompt D.

**DISCLAIMER:** 'I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time'

Mostly a friendship piece but can be Tegan/Doctor if you wish.

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><p><strong>Doctor Who<strong>

Nyssa turned the page on her book as the library door opened revealing her fellow companion Tegan. Pretending to still be reading Nyssa looked her friend over, Tegan looked awful, she was pale with dark shadows under her eyes and a sad haunted expression on her face. Nyssa watched as Tegan sat on the couch in front of the fireplace, and stared blankly into the flames. It was fairly early in the morning and Nyssa was willing to bet that Tegan hadn't slept much that night, and what little sleep she had got had probably been disturbed by nightmares.

It had been four days since Tegan and the Doctor had returned from Nagil 5, they had gone there in search of an antidote for Thorad fever. Both she and Adric had contracted the rare virus while on a distant moon in the outer Andromeda system. Without the antidote they would have died a slow horrible death, so the Doctor and Tegan had gone to barter with the people of Nagil 5 in order to save their lives. They had been successful and had returned with the cure, Nyssa had recovered within a day, Adric took a bit longer, but he too was now on the mend.

But ever since they had returned the Doctor's normal frantic speed seemed to have been set to fast forward, he was always moving, always fixing one thing on the TARDIS and then another, never slowing down, never pausing for very long. Tegan on the other hand seemed lost, she drifted through the corridors of the TARDIS with a forlorn look on her face, and she barely spoke or ate. The one time Nyssa had got her to speak had been two nights ago, when she had gone into Tegan's room after she had heard the other woman screaming.

**_Flashback_**

Shaking the sleeping woman's shoulders Nyssa frantically implored, "Wake up Tegan!"

Tegan sat straight up and seemed to look right through her for a moment, the look on her face was one of sheer terror, before she seemed to recognize her surroundings and who Nyssa was.

Sitting on the edge of the bed Nyssa pleaded softly, "Please Tegan tell me what's wrong. What happened to you and the Doctor?"

Tegan just shook her head, before saying, quietly, "It was awful Nyssa, and it was like _Fahrenheit 451, Soylent Green_, and George Orwell's _1984_, all rolled into one!"

She must have seen my confusion because she explained further, "It was a… oh what do you call it...a dystopian society. At least that is what the Doctor called it. The people there were little more then slaves, no free will, no thoughts of their own, no rights at all. The things I saw…"

She paused then and a shudder racked her body as tears fell down her cheeks, her voice cracking she said, "The worst part was the Doctor said there was nothing we could do, it was a fixed point in time. Whatever that is! Apparently even a rebel Time Lord can't interfere in one of those."

**_Present_**

Nyssa had never seen Tegan look so sad and defeated as she had right then. She had tried on a couple more occasions to get the other woman to open up to her again but she had been rebuffed time and again. Tegan seemed to grow more distant the more Nyssa pressed for her confidence until eventually she had stopped, thinking that maybe all Tegan needed was time. But seeing the ghost-like figure that Tegan had turned into made Nyssa think she had been wrong in her assessment.

Unsure of what to do for her friend Nyssa decided she could at least get some substance in her so she announced, "I'm starving! I am going to make myself some breakfast." She watched in dismay as Tegan started like she had forgotten Nyssa was even there, before she gave her a wobbly smile, then turned back and watched the fire again.

Sighing softly, Nyssa left the room and wandered down to the kitchen; as she put on the kettle and started some toast, she thought over how else she could reach her friend. Once the tea had been poured and the toast buttered she took the tray back down the hall and into the library. Tegan hadn't moved a muscle, she still stared into the fireplace, only now there were tears on her cheeks. Placing the tray on the table she was about to reach out to her when she heard a noise outside the library. Opening the library door, Nyssa saw it was the Doctor; he had a spanner in one hand and a ream of paper in the other.

Seeing that he looked like he was about to rush off, Nyssa quickly spoke, "Doctor, may I speak to you for a moment?"

The Doctor just stared at her for a minute as though he was trying to place where he knew her from, before saying, "Yes, of course you must hurry though, I think I have figured out a way to solve some of the TARDIS' hiccups."

"Doctor, you need to talk to Tegan," She started off saying as she maneuvered herself between the Doctor and the hallway blocking his path to the console room so he couldn't escape.

"Why?" The Doctor asked distractedly as he peered over her shoulder her as though already charting a course around her.

"She's a mess." Seeing the blank look the Doctor was giving her, made the normally mild-mannered Nyssa lose her temper, "Tegan walks around in a zoned out haze, she hasn't had any real sleep in FOUR days! And YOU haven't stopped moving long enough to get any sleep!"

Seeing how wide the Doctor's eyes had got, Nyssa realized she was yelling. Pausing to take a deep breath before continuing, her voice was a bit calmer but still as forceful, "Look Doctor, I don't know what happened on Nagil 5, but whatever it was it's affecting you both. And avoiding talking about it isn't doing either one of you any good."

The Doctor looked through library door and then back to Nyssa, and for the first time she saw pain and despair in the Time Lord's eyes before he said tiredly, "You are quite right, Nyssa. I have been keeping myself busy trying to sort through everything. I should have been looking out for Tegan as well. I will go speak to her at once." He handed her the spanner and all the papers, and went through the library door.

Nyssa watched from the doorway, as the Doctor approached Tegan. He sat next to her on the couch, and took her hand in his. Nyssa felt tears well up in her eyes as Tegan looked at the Doctor as through waking up for the first time in days, before she scooted forward and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in the Doctor's neck. The Doctor without hesitation returned the embrace, cradling the smaller woman against him.

Feeling as though she was intruding on something intimate, Nyssa shut the door and made her way to the console room hopeful that her friends would sort everything out and would be on the mend.

**The End**


End file.
